To hike the whole distance of the old Nakasendō between Tokyo and Kyoto has been on my bucket list for over a decade. In 2015 I hiked between a handful of the more famous post stations of the path, from Nakatsugawa across the Magome mountain pass to Tsumago. This whetted my appetite for a longer journey!

The complete path along the Nakasendō from Tokyo to Kyoto is about 550 kilometres long, and I will spend about 30 days of hiking from one end to the other. This includes a couple of days exploring alternate stretches that used to be part of the official path, but were changed as the years went by. These changes were often made because of natural obstacles such as the Kiso river obliterating parts of the path during floods, to in one instance some rather sweeping changes initiated by political decisions.

The obstacles of hiking the Nakasendō in the modern day are far from the same as they were during the Edo period. Crossing rivers, for instance was maybe the biggest challenge in the old days, not only because a lot of them had no bridges, but also because there were quite a number of waterways where the ruling Tokugawa clan prohibited even ferry services. Travellers were literally forced to wade across these rivers on foot, or maybe if they could afford it, by being carried in palanquins or riding horses. The reason for this was that any kind of infrastructure that could make it easier to march an army towards Edo was seen as suspicious, and something that was curtailed as much as possible. In the modern era, rivers are very seldom a problem for a hiker, although there are a handful of bridges along the way that don’t have enough room for a pedestrian among the traffic. Nevertheless, the issues with rivers and streams has changed drastically for the better in modern times.

On the flip side, two of the biggest challenges for a hiker today is time and money. In the old days, a majority of the people who travelled the Nakasendō did it as part of their jobs. Nowadays it is a serious commitment of both vacation days and hard-earned money to go on a 30-day or even longer hike across Japan.

But let’s not fret over details right now! In a few months time I’ll take the first few steps along the Nakasendō, starting from the kilometre zero marker on the Nihonbashi bridge in Tokyo!